Are you preparing for an Informatica IICS (Intelligent Cloud Services) interview? Whether you are a fresher starting your data integration career or an experienced ETL/cloud data engineer targeting top MNCs, mastering IICS is crucial in today’s cloud-first data ecosystem.
In this post, we have compiled the top 75 most frequently asked IICS interview questions and answers with detailed explanations and real-time examples. These cover key topics like Data Integration, Application Integration, Secure Agent, Taskflows, REST API, Pushdown Optimization, Incremental Loads, SCD, and more to strengthen your preparation and help you confidently clear any IICS technical interview.
1. What is IICS?
Answer:
IICS (Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services) is a cloud-based data integration platform that enables ETL, ELT, data synchronization, application integration, and data quality operations on cloud and on-premise sources.
2. What are the main services available in IICS?
Answer:
- Data Integration
- Application Integration
- Data Quality
- Mass Ingestion
- API Management
- B2B Gateway
3. What is Secure Agent in IICS?
Answer:
Secure Agent is a lightweight program installed on a local server or cloud VM to connect IICS to on-premise or cloud data sources securely. It performs data movement and transformation.
4. What is a Mapping in IICS?
Answer:
A mapping defines data flow logic from source to target using transformations.
Example: Read Customer data from Salesforce and load it into an AWS S3 bucket after filtering inactive customers.
5. What is a Mapping Task?
Answer:
A task that executes a mapping, with runtime parameters, schedule, and advanced configurations.
6. Difference between Mapping and Taskflow.
- Mapping: Defines ETL logic.
- Taskflow: Orchestrates multiple tasks (mappings, tasks, conditionals) to build workflows.
7. What is Taskflow in IICS?
Answer:
Taskflow is used to build complex ETL workflows with multiple tasks, conditional logic, loops, and parallel executions.
8. What is parameterization in IICS?
Answer:
Using parameters ($param) in mappings or tasks to pass runtime values such as connection names, file names, filter conditions.
9. What is a Secure Agent group?
Answer:
A logical grouping of Secure Agents to achieve high availability and load balancing.
10. What is the difference between Dynamic and Static mapping parameters?
- Dynamic Parameters: Value can change between sessions.
- Static Parameters: Value remains the same for all sessions unless manually changed.
11. What is the Expression transformation?
Answer:
Used to perform row-wise calculations, string manipulations, date conversions, etc.
Example: Concatenate First Name and Last Name.
12. What is a Lookup transformation in IICS?
Answer:
Used to perform lookups on relational, flat file, or cloud objects to enrich data flows.
13. Types of Lookup in IICS?
- Connected Lookup
- Unconnected Lookup
- Dynamic Lookup (only in Data Integration mappings)
14. What is a Filter transformation?
Answer:
Filters rows based on a condition.
Example: Pass only active employees where status = ‘Active’.
15. What is an Aggregator transformation?
Answer:
Used to perform aggregate calculations like SUM, AVG, COUNT, GROUP BY.
16. Difference between Aggregator and Expression.
- Aggregator: Multi-row calculations (group based).
- Expression: Single row-wise calculations.
17. What is Joiner transformation?
Answer:
Joins two sources based on a condition, supporting Inner, Left Outer, Right Outer, Full Outer joins.
18. What is a Source transformation?
Answer:
Represents the origin of data in a mapping (DB table, flat file, cloud source).
19. What is a Target transformation?
Answer:
Represents the destination to load data in a mapping (DB table, cloud storage, file).
20. What is Union transformation?
Answer:
Combines data from multiple pipelines into a single pipeline (similar to SQL UNION ALL).
21. What is Router transformation?
Answer:
Routes data into multiple groups based on conditions, similar to multiple filters in one.
22. Difference between Filter and Router transformation.
- Filter: Passes only matching rows to downstream.
- Router: Can pass rows to multiple groups including a default group.
23. What is Source Control in IICS?
Answer:
Enables versioning of mappings and assets, integration with Git or other repositories.
24. What is the Mass Ingestion Service?
Answer:
Used for high-volume ingestion of files or database tables into cloud data lakes or warehouses like Snowflake, S3, Azure Data Lake.
25. How do you implement Incremental Load in IICS?
Example:
- Use the Last Updated Date field with a parameter.
- In Lookup or Source filter, fetch records greater than the last processed date.
26. What is Data Synchronization Task?
Answer:
Used for simple source-to-target data transfer with filters and field mappings.
27. What is Replication Task?
Answer:
Copies entire tables or incremental data for replication from source to target.
28. What is the difference between Replication Task and Data Synchronization Task?
- Replication: Table-level replication including schema changes.
- Data Sync: Data-level ETL with mapping configurations.
29. What is the difference between IICS and PowerCenter?
- IICS: Cloud-native, subscription model, REST API based.
- PowerCenter: On-premise, license based, traditional ETL server-client.
30. How do you implement CDC (Change Data Capture) in IICS?
Answer:
Using incremental extraction based on date fields or source-specific CDC connectors.
31. What are runtime environment options in IICS?
- Cloud Hosted Agent
- Secure Agent installed on customer servers
32. What is an unconnected Lookup?
Answer:
A lookup called like a function from expressions, not part of main data flow.
33. What is pushdown optimization in IICS?
Answer:
Pushes transformation logic to the source or target database for performance improvement.
34. What is error handling in IICS?
Answer:
Using rejection logs, error handling transformations, and task settings to handle failed records.
35. What are Connections in IICS?
Answer:
Metadata definitions to connect to data sources or targets (e.g. Oracle, Salesforce, AWS S3).
36. What is mapping parameter file?
Answer:
File containing runtime parameter values used during task execution.
37. What is a Hierarchy Parser transformation?
Answer:
Parses hierarchical data formats like JSON or XML into relational rows and columns.
38. What is Hierarchy Builder transformation?
Answer:
Converts relational data into hierarchical formats like JSON/XML for target storage.
39. What is Schedule in IICS?
Answer:
Configuring mappings or taskflows to run at specific intervals using schedules.
40. What is a Decision task in Taskflow?
Answer:
Implements conditional branching logic in workflows based on expressions or previous task outputs.
41. What is the Assignment task in Taskflow?
Answer:
Assigns or modifies parameter values within a workflow.
42. What is Service Connector in Application Integration?
Answer:
Defines reusable connections to external REST/SOAP services for integration tasks.
43. How do you call a mapping from another mapping in IICS?
Answer:
Use Mapplet for reusable logic, or call via Taskflow if separate mappings.
44. What are Mapplets in IICS?
Answer:
Reusable mapping logic that can be used in multiple mappings for modular ETL design.
45. What is a parameter set?
Answer:
A collection of parameters grouped together for reuse across mappings.
46. What is the difference between Mapplet and Reusable Transformation?
- Mapplet: A set of transformations combined as a unit.
- Reusable Transformation: Single transformation reusable in multiple mappings.
47. What are Event-Based Taskflows?
Answer:
Taskflows triggered based on file arrival or other external events.
48. What is REST V2 Connector?
Answer:
Connector in IICS to interact with REST APIs using GET, POST, PUT, DELETE operations with OAuth support.
49. What is the use of Snowflake connector in IICS?
Answer:
To read/write data directly from/to Snowflake cloud data warehouse.
50. What are the benefits of IICS over traditional ETL tools?
Answer:
- Cloud-native scalability
- Reduced infrastructure maintenance
- Fast deployments and upgrades
- Built-in AI and metadata management
- Simplified REST API integrations
51. What is REST API integration in IICS?
Answer:
IICS supports invoking REST APIs using REST V2 Connector or Service Connectors to integrate with external services for CRUD operations.
Example:
Fetch customer data from a third-party CRM API using GET method and load into Snowflake.
52. How do you handle complex JSON parsing in IICS?
Answer:
Use Hierarchy Parser transformation to flatten nested JSON into relational columns for downstream processing.
53. What is Advanced Pushdown Optimization (APDO)?
Answer:
Pushes the entire mapping logic, including joins and transformations, to the source or target database for improved performance.
54. How do you secure sensitive data in IICS?
Answer:
- Parameterize sensitive credentials
- Use Secure Agent’s encrypted password storage
- Leverage IICS masking or encryption functions for data at rest and in transit
55. What is the difference between Active and Passive transformations?
- Active Transformation: Changes the number of rows (e.g., Filter, Aggregator).
- Passive Transformation: Does not change the row count (e.g., Expression, Lookup).
56. What is dynamic file naming in IICS?
Answer:
Using parameters or built-in variables (like $InputFileName or $TimeStamp) to generate dynamic target file names at runtime.
57. What is Linear Taskflow vs Non-linear Taskflow?
- Linear: Executes tasks sequentially without branching.
- Non-linear: Includes branching using Decision or Parallel paths.
58. Explain parallel processing in IICS.
Answer:
Taskflows can execute multiple tasks in parallel paths to optimize execution time. Also, Data Integration tasks can use partitioning for parallel reads/writes.
59. How do you handle error records in IICS?
Answer:
Configure Reject file location in mapping tasks or use error handling transformations to route bad records to error tables/files for analysis.
60. What is the difference between Upsert and Update in IICS targets?
- Update: Modifies existing rows based on primary key match.
- Upsert: Updates if row exists, inserts if not found.
61. How do you implement Slowly Changing Dimension (SCD) Type 2 in IICS?
Answer:
Use mapping logic with Lookup to check existing record, then insert a new row with a new surrogate key and updated validity dates.
62. What is the Salesforce Bulk API mode in IICS?
Answer:
Enables high-volume data loads to Salesforce by batching records, reducing API call limits.
63. What is masking transformation in IICS?
Answer:
Used to anonymize sensitive data such as PII by replacing it with random or pattern-based masked values.
64. How do you call a stored procedure in IICS?
Answer:
Using Stored Procedure transformation with database connections that support procedure calls (e.g. Oracle, SQL Server).
65. What is the usage of SQL transformation?
Answer:
Executes custom SQL queries within a mapping to perform database operations not covered by standard transformations.
66. How do you deploy assets from development to production in IICS?
Answer:
Using Deployment Groups to export/import mappings, tasks, connections, and schedules between orgs (Dev → QA → Prod).
67. What is Secure Agent failover?
Answer:
When one Secure Agent in a group fails, another agent picks up the task, ensuring high availability.
68. How do you schedule a task to run every last day of the month?
Answer:
Use advanced scheduling expressions with cron-like syntax to specify the last day.
69. What is Informatica CLAIRE engine?
Answer:
CLAIRE is Informatica’s AI/ML engine embedded within IICS to automate data mapping suggestions, data quality rules, and anomaly detection.
70. What is API Manager in IICS?
Answer:
Allows publishing and managing APIs created within IICS, defining policies, security, rate limits, and usage analytics.
71. What is the difference between Application Integration and Data Integration in IICS?
- Application Integration: Real-time integration with process flows, APIs, event-driven logic.
- Data Integration: Batch ETL for data movement and transformation.
72. How do you handle schema drift in IICS?
Answer:
Using Schema Drift support to dynamically adjust to source schema changes without failing the mapping, supported by certain connectors.
73. What is Linear Mapping Task Execution?
Answer:
Executing mapping tasks one after another sequentially in Taskflows without conditional branching.
74. How can you monitor Secure Agent health?
Answer:
Using Administrator console > Runtime Environments to check agent status, logs, and heartbeat metrics.
75. What is the difference between Mapplet and Subprocess in Application Integration?
- Mapplet: Reusable ETL logic in Data Integration mappings.
- Subprocess: Reusable process logic in Application Integration for APIs and process flows.
Informatica IICS is becoming the backbone of cloud data integration and application workflows. By thoroughly practicing these 75 IICS interview questions and answers, you will gain clarity on fundamental as well as advanced concepts to excel in interviews and perform efficiently in real projects.
Continue revising these questions regularly, build POCs for each topic, and stay updated with new IICS features to enhance your expertise further. Bookmark this guide for your revision before interviews and share it with fellow learners preparing for Informatica, ETL, Cloud Data Engineer, or Integration Architect roles.
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